SALISBURY City won the first leg of their trio of Southern League Premier Division fixtures over the busy festive period to return to the top of the table.

Paul Sales' tenth minute goal proved enough to account for a stubborn Tiverton Town outfit, and put the Whites back above Bedford Town, whose game with Hitchin Town was abandoned because of a snow blizzard.

City now have one point more than Bedford and have three games in hand.

Meanwhile, third placed Chip-penham Town, who have played a game more than the Whites, maintained their own title hopes by beating Bath City 2-0.

Salisbury's game at a freezing Old Sarum attracted a crowd of 980 their highest gate of the season but had to be delayed by ten minutes due to Tiverton's players' coach being held up in Bank Holiday traffic on a gridlocked A303.

The interruption to City's pre-match preparations did not harm their concentration and they were first out of the traps with Sales rising majestically to head home Craig Davis' tenth minute corner.

It was Sales' 15th goal of the campaign and his 90th in total for the club.

Although far from their best, Salisbury were never in any real danger and, had they taken their first half chances, would have won far more convincingly.

It was the 16th time this season that they had kept a clean sheet.

The only sour note on the day for Whites was the yellow card picked up by Sales' strike partner Matt Tubbs. His fifth card of the season means he now misses the trip to Cheshunt on January 10.

Tiverton had arrived as the division's in-form side unbeaten in nine games and netting 14 times in their last three.

Afterwards, City manager Nick Holmes said: "I can see why they score, but all we did was give them a few long shots that Kevin (Sawyer) was able to save.

"We never got with it in the second half and they got to the ball a little quicker than us, which was frustrating.

"It was just one of those days when we weren't at our usual best. We should have scored a couple more early on. But they came to us as the form side in the league and scoring goals for fun.

"We stopped them doing that and kept another clean sheet.

"We can't ask for much more than that."

City will be looking to consolidate their lead at the top when bottom of the table Northwood visit on Saturday (New Year's Eve).

Whites then head to Gloucester City on Monday, January 2.

Both games kick off at 3pm.